This is a trick question. There is no right answer. It ranks alongside, “does my bottom look big in this?” and “Mummy, where do babies come from?” as queries that should be side-stepped at all costs.
Last time I got drawn into the ‘where was I before I was born?’ discussion - with Curly Girlie who was two at the time - my answer covered childbirth, God, the theory of evolution and, if memory serves me right, Islam. Now, whenever Curly mentions ‘that man who sees us all the time’, I have to reassure myself that she doesn’t mean some lurking perv, but the rather more benign presence of God.
Following the same conversation, she still - two years on - refers to the time ‘when I was a monkey’, and I don’t have the heart to inform her that evolution isn’t quite as simple as that.
In any case, the book Siblings Without Rivalry tells me that the ‘who do you love more?’ question should never be answered directly, as it only encourages competitive thinking between children. So when Curly Girlie dropped the big one today, I thought I was prepared.
‘Do you love me more than Alpha Blondie?’ she asked, while getting out of the car.
‘Curly, I love you more than you can possibly imagine. There’s no-one else in the world quite like my wonderful Curly.’ (See what I did there?)
‘How much do you love me?’
‘You remember that picture of Space with the Earth and the Sun? I love you more than all that.’
‘You love me bigger than the Sun?’
‘Bigger than the Sun and the Earth,’ I said, feeling warm and benevolent and silly.
‘Do you love me bigger than the trampoline?’
‘Um, yes, much bigger than the trampoline.’
‘Do you love Alpha Blondie bigger than the trampoline?’
*stumped* Stupid book didn’t mention a trampoline.